Michael P. Maslanka

Michael P. Maslanka is managing partner of the Dallas office of Constangy, Brooks & Smith. His e-mail address is mmaslanka@constangy.com. He is board certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He writes the “Work Matters” column for Texas Lawyer’s In-House Texas publication and records labor and employment podcasts that can be found at www.texaslawyer.com.

December 07, 2012

Consider these final three warning signs to see "it" coming

Here are the final three warning signs on how to see "it" coming. The other seven were posted on Monday through Thursday.

8.
“We've always thought about it this way,
and we always will.” I can do no
better than Justice Felix Frankfurter, who decided a legal issue one way in
1943 and then completely reversed course in 1949. He gave this explanation in
his opinion in Henslee v. Union Planters
Bank: “Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it
merely because it comes late.” Genius.

9. “It is what it is.” Huh? This phrase now
is used principally by those who want to sound insightful and wise but who are
just dazed and confused. Only Buddhist monks are allowed to talk like Buddhist
monks.

10. “You are the most wonderful person I have
ever met. We were meant to start this business/do this deal/win this suit.” Beware
flattery without facts, especially when it comes too fast, too soon. It is a
sign of a sociopath. They target their victims (people they can use),
compromise their targets’ integrity, exploit them and toss them aside when finished.
The whole cycle starts with false flattery.

For
more information read “The Sociopath Next Door” by Martha Stout and “Without
Conscience: The Disturbing World of the
Psychopaths Among Us” by Robert D. Hare.
Or, sit down with “Othello.” Shakespeare identified the prototype sociopath,
Iago, who remarks, “When devils will the blackest sins put on/They do suggest
at first with heavenly shows. . . .”

Speaking
of the devil, watch this scene from “The Devil’s Advocate” (a truly horrible
movie). Al Pacino stars as Satan, with his day job being the managing partner
of an international firm. He counsels a colleague who knows Pacino is Satan: “Don’t
get too cocky. No matter how good you are. Don’t let them see you coming.
That’s the gaff, my friend — make yourself small. Be the hick. The cripple. The
nerd. The leper. The freak. Look at me — I’ve been underestimated from day
one.”

Here is the title card in the great fight: private
investigator Flippo in the white trunks v. Satan in the red. I’m in Flippo’s
corner, hoping and praying to see it coming. The devil be damned.